Guided tours of Stanford’s SLAC accelerator offer visitors a light-speed peek at science

COME VISIT THE SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (usually called SLAC), on the edge of the Stanford University campus, to learn about the inner workings of its 2-mile-long accelerator, which is used to smash atoms and now makes new discoveries about the universe.

SLAC’s accelerator is so long that it crosses under Interstate 280. It touts itself as the longest modern building on earth and from the outside, it looks like a long storage container heading toward the Santa Cruz Mountains.